Are anchor texts still important for Affiliates?

SEO and marketing skills are improving by the day. Yet, there are still some basics which are remaining constant no matter how trends change and improve. One such tool is the anchor text.

What is the Anchor Text?

To put it simply, this is used to link a piece of writing on a web page – to another page in a form of a clickable link. When clicked, it will redirect the reader to this targeted page. It also ideally tells both the reader and search engines what the target page is likely to be.

You can use it either with a keyword directly or include one nearby. Both are powerful SEO tools which should be used by affiliates and SEO content providers to improve search engine rankings.

Types of Anchor Text

The link is only part of the anchor text equation; the text used is also extremely important. One of the easiest for content writers to use is partial match as it is easy to insert the link into the natural flow of the text. It might contain a keyword or be contained within a sentence that uses a keyword. The ideal partial match anchor text will convey what the linked page describes without explicitly stating it; for example, a link of “best websites for sports betting” will redirect to a page which lists and rates sports betting websites.

The second type of anchor text is exact-match. This is where you include a keyword within the link itself. They are one of the most important types of anchor texts but are also a common reason to be penalised by Google so make sure you use them sparingly.

Another type of anchor text you may use is generic anchor texts. These are common phrases like “click here” or “check out this website” which offer no intrinsic information about what the actual link might contain in the same way a partial match or exact-match anchor text does.

The final type of anchor text useful to affiliates would be the branded anchor text. This is where you use the brand itself, for example: “Affiliate Insider”, as the anchor text for the link.

Why are anchor text links still important for affiliates?

Anchor texts are important as affiliate links can be inserted into anchor texts and that can impact on how your site ranks on search engines. There are just a few steps you have to take heed on when inserting anchor texts:

Optimise the link characters so they aren’t too long

Don’t make the text overly long, or promotionally spammy

Doing this will decrease your chances of being penalised by Google and pushed down the rankings.

It may seem like one of the more insignificant SEO tasks to focus on, but it is one which can also make a small difference to where you feature in SERPS. By correctly anchoring your links, Google and other search engines will understand exactly why you are linking these two pages together and will use that information to boost your positioning.